Every Word Tells a Story 2 - Bibliophiles, Biscuits and Buccaneers

Updated on November 13, 2016

Oxford English Dictionary

The Matthew Effect

The pursuit of a better vocabulary is a rewarding one. The more words we know, the more we enjoy reading and the more we read. This upward spiral of reading means we learn even more words and so forth. Those with poor vocabulary don’t enjoy reading and this means they learn even less, causing a further diminished vocabulary.

In short, ‘the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer’

This is referred to in human development as the ‘Matthew Effect’. This principle was coined by Keith E. Stanovich who is a research chair in Applied cognitive Science. He has done extensive research into reading and what it does for the mind. His widely lauded book, ‘What Intelligence Tests Miss’ won the Grawemeyer Award for Education in 2010. The concept takes it's name from a Biblical parable.

Those familiar with the Bible may recall the parable told by Jesus and recorded in Matthew 25:29

‘For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath’

Although it is likely the Lord is neither talking about money nor vocabulary and perhaps hinting at 'faith' in the above passage.

Matthew with angel

Rich get Richer...

The ‘active vocabulary’ required to read is only around 2000
words ( or word families) as it covers over 95% of the written text.

But there is pleasure in knowing more, learning many new
words and using them. The ‘reading’ vocabulary in turn influences the thinking
vocabulary.

In my pursuit to not only know knew words, but also to know
where they come from, how they germinated and what stories they can tell us, I would
like to present you a selection beginning with ‘B’

And what a selection it is. For we go from the dry desert
sands of ancient Egypt to the wild, wet and windy Caribbean in our quest. We
encounter the incredible influence of the papyrus plant in our modern day
reading and writing. We will learn about the crunchy ‘biscuit’ and the
succulent pleasures of a spit-roasted meat. We go from blank sheets learn to
boycott ignorance and favour intelligence.

Come then, our first stop is the ancient Mediterranean
port of Byblos and the role it played in coining the very name of the Holy Book.

Port of Byblos

BIBLIOPHILE

The word bibliophile literally means a lover of books. I have
always been curious about the word ‘Biblio’
which is a root that means a ‘book’.

The ancient Phoenician city of ‘Gebal’ was better known to
the Greeks as ‘Byblos’. This was because this port was where the Egyptian papyrus
(whose bark is called Bublos) was imported to Greece. Byblos attracts enormous interest
from archaeologists as is has been found to be inhabited since 5000 B.C.
Successive layers of sediments left behind by human habitation make it a rich
archive of history and civilisation.

Papyrus was the choice of writing material in ancient Egypt
from very early on until it gained as rival in parchment made from animal skin.
In Europe, due to the moister climes, parchment and vellum took favour from papyrus
although its use continued until around 12th century. Eventually
paper was introduced in a more cheaply produced form and carried over the
ancient name in its current form.

As the earliest books were made from Papyrus- in Greek the
name ‘byblos’ became the ‘book’. Thus the English word ‘Bible’ literally means ‘The
Book’.

Eros

Of love and affection...

The word ‘Phile’ also comes from ancient Greek as one of the
four words for love. Now you may be
curious about what are the other types of love according to the Grecian
Scholars:

Agápe
This term for love or affection also is used in modern Greek. ‘ I love you’ in
Greek is ‘s’agapo’ as anyone who has listened to nay Greek Music will attest
for many a song contains the magical phrase’ s’agapo’.

Éros
This is passionate and intimate love love, and forms the root for ‘Erotic’.
Plato in his writings, doesn’t refer to the physical side of attraction and
Erotic relationship and thus we refer to love or relationship without the
physical attraction or intimacy as ‘Platonic’!

Philia
this is brotherly love, virtuous love for the community, people, objects and
concepts. This was coined by Aristotle.

Storge
is affection and love for family members

The root 'Philia' or ' Phile' crops up in several words and means 'love of', ' a strong preference to' or ' is attracted to'... for example you could have a ' Anglophile' - a lover of all things English, a 'Francophile' - to French and so on. In medicine you have ' Haemophilia' and 'Necrophilia' the former meaning ' a tendency towards bleeding' and the latter meaning 'abnormal attraction to the dead'.

So there you have it. The love for books gives us the root
words that have such a rich tapestry of learning. From writing materials to the
concepts of love and affection.

Bus

BUS

We have all travelled by bus. Little did I know, the term
bus comes all the way from the Latin term meaning ‘all of us’.

‘Omnibus’ is a dative
plural form of ‘Omnis’ meaning all. The French borrowed this for their
carriages calling them ‘voiture omnibus’ or carriage for everyone. This
eventually shrunk to ‘omnibus’ and then to ‘bus’.

Biscuit

Biscuit?

BISCUIT

We all love biscuits. Their crunchy goodness and sinful pleasures has been comforting to humanity for decades. Before I go any further, let me clarify something. The term ‘biscuit’ in America is used more to indicate a soft, raised cake made from dough like a scone and the ‘European’ biscuit is called a cookie or a ‘cracker’.

I remember my very first time in US of A, lovingly looking at a breakfast menu in a local diner and being asked whether I would like some biscuits with my eggs, bacon and Hash. Strange, I thought, why would I want biscuit with my breakfast? Perhaps a biscotti with my coffee, or a cookie with my hot chocolate but not with my egg and bacon, thank you. Only after casting my eye on the others plates I came to realise what it was referring to.

Biscuit owes its name to the Romans. It comes from two roots’ bis’ meaning twice and ‘coquere’ meaning cooked. So biscuit is simply, ‘Twice cooked’. This may refer to the habit of cooking it first and then returning it to the oven for a bit of extra crunchiness and crisper outside.

So while the rest of the world still uses ‘biscuit’ to mean the ‘twice cooked’ crunchy dry product. In American English it has become used for ‘once cooked’ soft bread product. I am not going to take sides here but you can all fight this one out as to who is right!

Me, I ‘d happily eat both, as long as they taste nice, are fresh and I have something to dunk ‘em in.

Mmmmm.

Bridge

BRIDGE ( Card Game)

The card game of ‘Bridge’ belongs to the Whist family. There are many theories to where it
originates from. One thing is certain,
that it has nothing to do with a Bridge.

It comes from the Turkish terms ‘bir’
and ‘uch’ meaning ’1’ and ‘3’ . This game from an ancient form of a card game
called Khedive, was ( and is) very popular in Turkey and was eventually introduced to the
modern world.

So ‘Bir-uch’ became ‘Bridge’!

Boycott leaving Ireland

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832-97)

BOYCOTT

The word that has come to mean 'an organised campaign of avoidance and ostracism', 'to renounce and refuse to do something', strangely owes its name to it’s first victim, a British Estate Manager, Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott ( 1832- 1897), was tasked with managing land in County Mayo in Ireland.

The Irish Land League, an organisation set up in 1879 to rebel against the feudal overlords and asking for agrarian reforms, reduced rentals and better wages, set about an organised campaign of not working for those who did not agree with its aims and objectives. In the early 1880s one of the first to suffer from their campaign was good ol’ Captain Boycott and the print media quickly picked this term up to mean what it means today.

While he did suffer from this campaign and had to leave Ireland with impunity, Captain Boycott would perhaps have taken comfort in the fact that he has joined the pantheon of those that have given their names to an item, an illness, a procedure, or a concept etc.. Such words are known as Eponyms( ( giving- names).

Can you think of other Eponyms?

Did you know that the words Jacuzzi, Dahlia, Chauvinism, Nicotine, Caesarean, Sideburns are all eponyms?

Isn’t it the ultimate from of self actualisation, to become a word!

I would love to become a word, but hopefully a nice, good. word and not something like 'Crap' named after Thomas Crapper who invented a line in flushing toilets!

Conan the Barbarian | Source

A funny musical tribute to the barbarian

BARBARIAN

The word Barbarian has an interesting origin. It comes from ancient Greek

' Barbaros' meaning foreigner. The term is an onamatopoeic coinage from 'bar bar' which is the Greek ( borrowed from Sanskrit barbarus - means stammering) for 'blah -blah' or 'unable to speak intelligibly'.

To the cultured Greek ears, any foreign language sounded vulgar or unintelligible. This led to calling those people with a foreign tongue or language as 'barbaros' which then gave way to 'barbarous' meaning foreign or 'vulgar', violent' and ultimately' barbarian'.

Perhaps in our times it was made more famous by Robert E. Howard who created the Hyperborean ' Conan the Barbarian' originally in a series of stories that were eventually adapted to comics. The film version starring Arnold Shwarzenegger enjoyed good success and a sequel. It is currently being remade starring Jason Momoa - an equally physically imposing actor who has starred in Stargate : Atlantis.

Barbacoa

Barbecue

BARBECUE

Ah, the summer pleasures of having a barbecue with your
friends and family. The cooking smells from a nice hot grill where marinated
meats may sizzle away in the sunshine. The chilled beer and wine and copious
lemonade. Barbecue is now a universal pleasure come rain or shine.

The origin of the word goes to West Indies and more
specifically Haiti. Linguists think etymologically the word barbecue stems from
‘barbacoa’ - a Haitian word for spit roasting meats on wooden racks- it was the
French who colonised these parts and borrowed the word for their own hot racks(
careful!) and spread throughout the
world as Barbecue. Fondly known by Aussies as ‘Barbie’.

While this is the attribution given to the word, there are many crazy theories floating
around, unclear of their origin but amusing nonetheless. One version says the
word come from the French habit of spit
roasting the whole pig- from head ( or beard) to tail- or ‘Barbe- a- Queue’ in
French!

Buccaneer

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

BUCCANEER

We stay in West Indies for this one, and more importantly we stay with the barbecues. I never knew the two words were so closely related. Apparently the French invaders to the Caribbean, saw the local woodsmen, spit roast their meat and smoke it over a wooden rack. (remember Barbacoa from the last section). The process ‘ Bacoa’ became ‘Boucan’ in the mouths of French settlers.

They referred to these wild natives of West Indies as ‘Boucanier ’ or those who dreid meat on a wooden frame over a fire. Soon the British encouraged the locals to take on wild ways, to sabotage French and Spanish Galleons for a share of the booty. So the ‘boucaniers’ became ‘buccaneers’ or Pirates of the Caribbean.

The image of the Jolly Roger and the unwashed lawlessness of the buccaneers becomes somewhat less terror inducing when you realise they were named after a cooking style!

There is a fire burning against the chill, meat is slowly tenderising on the hot grill, there is plenty of hearty ale and perhaps a tad more rum than is healthy. Let’s all raise our tankard and sing together the rather ghoulish yet rousing version of Fifteen men in a Dead man’s chest. Ooh aargh me hearties!

“ Fifteen men in a dead man’s chest

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil has done with the rest

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!"

See you at C

With that I conclude the bombastic boisterousness of the B words. I am sure you will join me at C like those buccaneers. Bye for now, Brigands!

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